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Koenjihyakkei

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Few bands are more enigmatic than Koenji Hyakkei (written in Japanese 高円寺百景). Though firmly grounded in the Zeuhl style of Magma, they have taken it to new and unexplored places. Fronted by drummer Yoshida Tatsuya, of Ruins fame, their lineup shifts as rapidly as their style does. However, two things remain constant in their music- lyrics in a made up (and probably nonsensical) language, and an exotic, almost folk feel to the music. The combination of the two gives a sense that you’re listening to the music of a culture that exists only in minds of a handfull of creative people.

Until recently, their ensemble has consisted of drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, and female vocals (usually operatically trained). With their latest album, Angherr Shisspa, they have replaced the guitar with reed player Komori Keiko (mainly on soprano sax). With this change in instrumentation, their style has veered into a new direction to match the change in tone color.
Through their evolution of style, their rhythmic and formal complexity have expanded greatly, incorporating polyrhythms, asymmetrical time signatures (i.e. not all beats are the same length), as well as more complex and varied sections, often containing polyphony and counterpoint. However, through all these impressive technical feats, they have managed to keep the overall feel very simple and melodic, to the extent that most other music feels hideously normal after listening to Koenji Hyakkei.

Tagged as:

zeuhl, avant-garde, progressive rock, experimental, japanese
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8	Avedumma	17
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moe_blunts wrote:
Sunday afternoon

aw man, that sounds awesome. where'd you hear the magma cover?

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navitatl wrote:
Sunday morning

Finally heard their Magma cover medley... fucking awesome! Too short! I wish they would do an entire album of magma covers.

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Karppaky wrote:
Thursday afternoon

Angherr Shisspa > MDK > others

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GfNAmv wrote:
last week

great stuff, especially right after a joint

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BatAttakk wrote:
last week

Insanely good

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praisingfolly wrote:
11 days ago

Kohntarkosz is, unfortunately, made almost entirely unnecessary by the existence of Magma Live. It's still a great album.

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Prayermad wrote:
12 days ago

kohntarkosz is overrated (good/great but not as good as the four albums before) and MDK is objectively the best album ever, no questions asked!!!1

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Prayermad wrote:
12 days ago

MDK>Angherr Shisspa>Wurdah Itah>Udu Wudu>others

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praisingfolly wrote:
14 days ago

Ok, move Angherr Shisspa above Kohntarkosz.

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praisingfolly wrote:
14 days ago

MDK>Magma Live>Kohntarkosz>Angherr Shisspa=Hundred Sights of Koenji>K.A.>Viva Koenji>other Magma and Koenji albums>Merci

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Sckxyss wrote:
15 days ago

I don't like them more than Magma, but I actaully prefer Angherr Shisspa to .M.D.K.

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praisingfolly wrote:
16 days ago

Race traitor.

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Barusamikosu wrote:
17 days ago

I actually like them more than Magma.

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praisingfolly wrote:
last month

all IMO of course.

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praisingfolly wrote:
last month

But they have yet to put together an album that works as well as a whole as the best Magma albums (MDK and Magma Live). They came close with Angherr Shisspa, but they have yet to hit the heights of MDK. They are certainly the second best Zeuhl band after Magma, though, and by quite a large margin. They're really the only other band that has truly stayed within the confines of the genre without sounding ridiculously similar to Magma.

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VanillaScarab wrote:
last month

Only ~50,000 plays? These guys are about as awesome as Magma!

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The_Night_Head wrote:
last month

This is slowly (very slowly) grwoing on me...

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Prayermad wrote:
last month

mixes aggression with beauty in such an amazing manner, angherr shisspa is my sweetheart. isnt the part in rattims friezz (3:30-4:00 or something like that) amazingly beautiful? the part right before there's only bass and drums.

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acidHL wrote:
last month

Great band.

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Kosmoso_Ragana wrote:
September 2008

Grahbem Jorgazz . amazing

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